Case based reasoning has been applied to various diagnostics and “help-desk” tools. A case contains a list of symptoms, a set of case bases and a set of action items describing an appropriate repair or test. A case base contains questions and paths to possible repairs/tests, i.e., action items. The case base includes answers to the questions which are designed to lead the user to a diagnosis or an action item to solve the problem.
However, for some work machines or systems there are in existence other tools and systems containing information related to the machine, e.g., repair and technical information. In the field, there may be other systems directly connected to the machine or system that contain information which would be helpful to the diagnostic system to have access to assist in the process of diagnosing or providing repair or test solutions.
The present invention is directed to overcome one or more of the problems as set forth above.